Pontiac Fiero
The Pontiac Fiero is a rear mid-engine, light sports car manufactured and marketed by Pontiac for model years 1984 – 1988. Intended as an economical commuter car with modest performance aspirations, it was Pontiac's first two-seater since their 1926 to 1938 coupes, and the first mass-produced, rear mid-engine car by any American manufacturer.
In addition to using 4- and 6-cylinder engines to help Pontiac meet America's 'CAFE' average fuel economy requirements, the Fiero's chassis and structure technology used non-load-bearing, composite body-panels, contributing to the car's light-weight and its unique selling proposition. Pontiac engineers modified the design over its life to enhance its performance and reposition the two-seater closer to the implications of its sporty configuration.
The Fiero 2M4 placed on Car and Driver magazine's Ten Best list for 1984, and was the Official Pace Car of the Indianapolis 500 for 1984.
A total of 370,168 Fieros were manufactured over five years' production, its mild performance, reliability and safety issues becoming points of criticism. The Fiero was discontinued after annual sales fell steadily.
History and design
The Fiero was conceived as a small, two-seat sports car with all new suspension and a V6 engine. While General Motors's management were opposed to investing in a second two-seater sports car that might compete with the Corvette, young Pontiac engineers in 1978 were able to sell the Fiero concept to the corporation as a fuel-efficient four-cylinder "commuter car" that just happened to have two seats, rather than a muscle car. When the engineers brought back a running prototype in less than six months, it was given the green light for production.They perceived the oil crisis as a market opportunity for a fuel-efficient sporty commuter car. The Fiero was redesigned to use a fuel efficient version of GM's four-cylinder Iron Duke engine capable of in the city and on the highway with the economy-ratio transmission option. The fuel economy was considered as impressive for a 2.5 L engine of the period, but the three-speed automatic reduced highway mileage to only. With respect to fuel economy, the Fiero appealed to a market niche distinct from the Corvette's.
Pontiac assigned oversight of the Fiero project to Hulki Aldikacti, a Turkish born executive with over twenty years of experience. Its design was unusual for GM, and stood out from their other products. The two-seater's development budget from design to plant retooling, was 400 million dollars, a fraction of a typical GM development budget.
Aldikacti's initial challenge was with GM's corporate structure, which split its engineers into two categories: the car engineers who would create blueprints for the car, and manufacturing engineers who would work out the fabrication and assembly issues. Fiero blueprints traveled back and forth between the two engineering branches, resulting in a waste of time and money. Aldikacti was forced to sit the two teams of engineers down next to one another, allowing for no excuses as to why there was "no build" after his design was done. Many modifications in the Fiero's designs were needed to be made for production; for instance, despite his long-standing interest in manufacturing body panels from plastic, Aldikacti consented to metal body pieces, the dies for which were much less costly.
As the prototypes took shape, the tight budget took its toll on the design, particularly on Aldikacti's dream of a high-performance, aluminum-block V6; the cost of developing a new engine would be more than the production of the whole car itself. Instead, Aldikacti was forced to settle for the already manufactured four-cylinder engine GM produced for Pontiac, the "Iron Duke," nicknamed for its heavy iron block.
The word Fiero means "very proud", "fierce", "bold", "haughty" "cruel", "severe" in Italian, and "wild", "fierce", or "ferocious" in Spanish. Alternative names considered for the car were Sprint, P3000, Pegasus, Fiamma, Sunfire, and Firebird XP.
Aldikacti's unorthodox design methods and personal manner made him unpopular to most of GM's bureaucracy. He was told by counterparts at other GM divisions three times that the Fiero project had been cancelled by corporate management. However, the project was kept alive by high-ranked defenders, chiefly William Hoglund, who took over Pontiac in 1980, when the brand's popularity was heavily diluted and its cars could be described as outdated. In 1983 Hoglund told his top three dozen staffers that Pontiac would rebuild itself with cars that were exciting and different — terms that described Aldikacti's "commuter car". In order to meet Hoglund's marketing teams goal of 100,000 cars a year, Hoglund negotiated a deal to reopen a plant once shut down in the heart of Pontiac, Michigan. He and his staff wanted to prove that cooperation between management and labor could be solved without the use of robots on the assembly line, which GM's top executives wanted. Likewise, Hoglund allowed the hourly paid workers to choose the two-seater's name — hence the name "Fiero."
A mid-engine layout was chosen to reduce both aerodynamic drag and vehicle weight; to improve fuel efficiency, and to offer handling, traction, and braking benefits. The performance potential of the mid-engine layout was not realized when the Fiero debuted. As cost-saving measures, the tires, brakes, and suspension components were carried over from other GM platforms such as the X and T platforms. As a result, the handling abilities of the Fiero were merely on par with other contemporary sporty coupes.
The Fiero received positive reviews for its handling, as well as negative reviews for not meeting expectations of higher performance from its mid-engine configuration. Despite the criticism, the Fiero sold well and although Pontiac operated three shifts at the factory during 1984, they could not keep up with initial demand.
The sharing of suspension and other components with other GM cars meant the rear suspension and powertrain was virtually identical to that of the Phoenix; the Fiero even included rear tie rod ends attached to a "steering knuckle", although these were hard-mounted to the engine cradle and only used for maintaining the rear tire alignment.
As the oil crisis eased by 1985, demand developed for more engine power and better performance. Pontiac responded by introducing the GT model which included upgraded suspension tuning, wider tires, and a V6 engine having more than the base four-cylinder.
In 1988, changes included a completely redesigned suspension along with two-piece brake calipers and upgraded brake rotors — the latter which had been conceived with the initial design. The available I4 and V6 engines benefited from evolutionary improvements, but the planned availability of turbochargers and newer DOHC engines did not happen before production stopped.
In spite of the design finally realizing its potential, sales had declined and GM ended production.
Production years
1984
The Fiero began production in August 1983. In an effort to sell the car as economically sensible, GM equipped and sold the Fiero as a commuter car; although the marketing build-up leading to initial release indicated anything but a regular commuter. The car also proved uncomfortable for some drivers because of the lack of power steering.At the beginning of production the Fiero was only available in Red and White colors with Black and Light Gray Metallic introduced later, the paint shop was only able to handle four different colors at a time. All 1984 models came with the same 2.5 L I4.
Although sales literature listed only two models available in 1984, there were at least three models available with different optional packages. There was the Fiero Coupe, the Sport Coupe and the SE. The Fiero Coupe, also called "Fuel Economy Leader", came with the MY-8 4-speed manual transaxle that had a 0.73 overdrive top gear along with a high mpg 3.32:1 axle ratio. This gave it an EPA highway/city rating of 50/31 mpg. Air conditioning and automatic transaxle could not be ordered. The starting price for the Fiero Coupe was $7,999. The Fiero Sport Coupe, also referred to as the "base car", came with the M-19 four-speed manual with a 0.81 top gear along with 4.10:1 differential, giving it better acceleration at the cost of fuel economy, 42/26 mpg. An automatic 3-speed transmission, MD-9 Hydramatic 125-C, was available along with A/C which was shared with the Pontiac Sunbird. The starting price was $8,499 for the Sport Coupe. The top model was the Fiero SE, starting at $9,599, it included the WS6 handling package along with other trim upgrades.
The marketing included title sponsorship of Daryl Hall & John Oates tour supporting the release of their Big Bam Boom album. From November 1984 through 1985, each tour venue had Fiero banners and signage above the main stage, new Fieros on display, and Pontiac dealer ticket giveaways. Sales managers at Pontiac dealerships also received a limited edition "Pontiac Fiero Presents Daryl Hall & John Oates" vinyl greatest hits album enticing them to participate in the sponsorship tour. The LP was Rock 'n Soul Part 1. The album cover featured Hall & Oates standing with a red 1984 Fiero SE.
Also, for marketing purposes, the 1984 base model was featured in a 1983 episode of the television show Hardcastle & McCormick.
The 1984 model line included a limited "Indy Pace Car" edition, consisting of an Indianapolis 500-themed option package on SE-model vehicles. Approximately 2,000 of these vehicles were sold. The Indy had aero body cladding and new front and rear fascias that would be used on the 1985 GT. Only the four-cylinder engine was available, though a few prototypes were fitted with a unique periscope-style inlet sprouting from the engine compartment and curving up and over the roof. This "periscope" style inlet was used on the three actual Indy Pace Cars used at the 1984 Indianapolis 500. This inlet scoop fed the Super Duty engine which was only exclusive to the actual Pace Cars. The Super Duty engine was rated at at 6,500 rpm and of torque at 5,500 rpm. Pontiac's general manager Bill Hoglund nominated John Callies to drive the actual pace car at Indy. Callies was the factory's lead engineer on both the pace car and IMSA programs. The Fiero became the first 4-cylinder car to pace the 500 since a Stoddard-Dayton paced the 1914 race.
The production of the 1984 model ran from July 1983, until almost the end of 1984, this resulted in Pontiac exceeding its first year goal of 80,000 units, which was 28,000 more than the initial estimate and the most two seater cars produced by any US manufacturer at the time.